The little furry objects that focus every tennis player’s energy are taking ATP Finals stars by storm and leaving them deflated.
“Balls are a big problem,” said world number 2 Alexander Zverev.
Many top players say that all brands have deteriorated and most don’t like playing with different ball brands from tournament to tournament.
During the ATP Finals in Turin, there was not a press conference where the subject was not raised.
The ATP, which manages the men’s circuit, has entered into a partnership agreement with Dunlop since 2019, until 2028.
But the ATP specifies that the Japanese manufacturer’s balls are only used “by about half of the tournaments on the circuit”, including four Masters 1000 events and these finals.
The four Grand Slam tournaments, which consume more than 50,000 balls each year and offer manufacturers highly sought-after visibility, are the subject of separate agreements.
The Australian Open uses Dunlop, the French Open and US Open have agreements with the American manufacturer Wilson and Wimbledon with the British company Slazenger.
“If you have four tournaments on the same continent and they use four different balls, it can be difficult and challenging,” Casper Ruud said after his opening victory against Carlos Alcaraz.
– ‘The balls die’ –
The most virulent critic is the angry world number 4 Daniil Medvedev who, recently in Shanghai, pretended to spit on a balloon and wipe his butt with another.
“Bullets die in the air,” the Russian said after his victory against Australian Alex De Minaur on Tuesday.
“When I come back five meters, at the end, the ball literally stops, so the guy has time to attack me.”
“Everyone can now stay in the gathering.”
Zverev, who is on the ATP Player Advisory Council, said the pandemic was partly to blame.
“They have become a lot slower,” the German said Monday after his victory over Andrey Rublev.
“Due to Covid, companies have tried to cut costs and are now using a different rubber material. They are using a different material for tennis balls, which makes tennis balls between 30 and 60 percent slower in average. “.
“They last less, they change from batch to batch, they lint more,” he adds.
Zverev said it was natural for the balls to inflate over the seven games before being changed, but now they are deflating.
“The air and pressure leaves the tennis ball because of the material. The material doesn’t hold it inside,” he said, adding that “the pressure of the tennis ball drops significantly.”
– ‘Like a steering wheel’ –
He said the matches were a bit like badminton.
“They look a bit like a shuttlecock. They fly through the air very fast for the first two or three meters, then they slow down. There’s nothing keeping the ball alive, which was very different five years ago or six years.” ” he said.
Zverev also blamed the injuries on balls.
“That’s why a lot of players now have elbow problems. A lot of players have wrist problems,” he said. “That wasn’t the case 10 or 15 years ago.”
Ruud said changing ball brands between tournaments is “the beauty of the game. It’s good because you’ll have different winners.”
“If you stick to just one ball, it would in some ways be a little unfair to anyone who likes the Tecnifibre ball,” Ruud said.
“It will give less chance to a guy who prefers a Wilson ball to a Dunlop ball.”
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